1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gap hiding structure of a vehicle seat, in which a cutout portion is formed on a seat cushion to arrange a seat belt therein and which covers and hides a gap of the cutout portion around the seat belt.
2. Description of the Related Art
JP-A-2009-1211 discloses a vehicle seat including such gap hiding structure. Two seat belt buckles are arranged side-by-side in a through-hole which is a cutout portion and a strip-shaped member is disposed between the seat belt buckles to cover the gap between the seat belt buckles.
However, in this structure, when the seat belt buckles are moved in the through-hole as when the seat belt is used for the occupant, the buckles and the strip-shaped member are strongly interfered with each other, and therefore, the strip-shaped member may be separated from a fixed state or may be damaged. As a result, the gap is not covered and the separated strip-shaped member is placed in a disrupted state. Consequently, appearance is deteriorated.
Further, if the seat is a so-called tilt-down seat (a seat which can be more compactly folded such that a seat cushion is retreated downward in conjunction with a forward tilting of a seat back when the seat back is tilted and folded forward relative to the seat cushion), a shield aesthetically covering a seat frame disposed below the through-hole is projected due to the relative movement with the seat cushion when the seat back is largely tilted backward by changing a posture of the seat, and thus the strip-shaped member may be pushed up from below. In this case, if the amount of push-up is larger, the strip-shaped member may be damaged.